Most income your business receives is assessable income – which means you need to declare it and it’s subject to tax. You can claim tax deductions for most costs you incur in running your business but there are exceptions. For example, you cannot claim deductions for private or domestic expenses. Entertainment, fines and some other expenses are also specifically excluded.
Tax planning strategies ensure you are not paying any more tax than required. For businesses, the process of preparing a tax plan involves an analysis of your business’ current and up to date financial statements, as well as your March BAS and projected income for the final quarter of the financial year.
We have an extensive checklist of actions that can assist in legally minimising the amount of tax your business is liable to pay. Consider the following tax deduction tips for your business tax.
Tax Tips
Pay superannuation early
Superannuation guarantee payments for your employees are not due until 28 July, however if you make these payments in June it will give you a deduction for them in this financial year.
Immediate asset write offs
A small business’ owner can immediately deduct the purchase of assets used in business costing less than $20,000 if acquired after 12 May 2015. Talk to our tax accountants to discuss the eligibility requirements.
Small Business Concessions – Prepayments
You can claim an immediate deduction for prepaid expenses where the payment covers a period of 12 months or less that ends in the next income year.
Defer income
You may consider issuing invoices and/or receiving payments until after 30 June.
Being organised and having the appropriate tax plans in place can assist with legally minimising your taxation liability when it comes time to lodge your returns.
Remember that you must to keep proper records that verify and explain all transactions which are relevant for the purpose of ascertaining the business’s income and expenditure and any documents that contain particulars of any elections, estimates, etc. Your business records can be kept electronically if you can demonstrate that your computer system is secure and accurate.
Here at The Quinn Group, our team of experienced Tax Agents and Tax Accountants can help you with your business tax return. For more information please submit an online enquiry, or call us on 02 9223 9166.
